Maplewood NJ has been called Brooklyn West by the New York Times. Perhaps you could think of it as Brooklyn with trees, and colonials and Tudors in place of brownstones. Maplewood attracts new residents from New York City because of its artsy vibe and diversity. It keeps them with an array of unique homes, shops and cultural opportunities, approximately 30 minutes from Manhattan on the Midtown Direct train line.
The Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts and the Maplewoodstock festival are two examples of the artistic nature of this community, but drive down any of the tree-lined streets of town and you will see from the wide variety of homes here that Maplewood residents are not cookie-cutter suburbanites! If you love early twentieth century Tudors and colonials Maplewood has plenty, and residents have preserved, updated and modified them with unique flair.
And the source of that unique flair is Maplewood’s diversity. It was here in Maplewood that one of the first openly gay Episcopal priests served a local parish. Since that time Maplewood and South Orange have become one of New Jersey’s principle LGBT havens. But the diversity of this community doesn’t stop there. Maplewood is also the home to the first United States Olympian to perform in a hijab, Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad. From a coffee shop that serves Mexican breakfast and Indian food, to Haitian radio stations and much, much more, it is no wonder that Maplewood’s diversity results in a such a dynamic and creative community. It was this diversity and dynamism that led me to choose the Maplewood office out of all the offices in North Jersey to start my real estate sales career after I left the Coldwell Banker corporate headquarters. If this sounds like the perfect hometown for you, I’d be honored to help you settle in!
